University of North Carolina Athletics
Golfer Catherine O'Donnell Aims For National Title
May 21, 2012 | Women's Golf
May 21, 2012
NCAA Tar Heel Notes | Tar Heels Discuss Preparing for NCAA Championships | Q&A With Casey Grice | First Round Pairings | Three Tar Heels Selected All-ACC
By Neil Amato
Catherine O'Donnell has the competitive focus and forgetfulness that sets elite athletes apart from the rest of us - the ability to zero in on a task, no matter the score, stage or conditions, instantly discarding good or bad memories.
Tuesday in Franklin, Tenn., O'Donnell and the Tar Heels' women's golf team begin play in the NCAA Championships. O'Donnell enters the event as the individual champion of the West Regional, her second tournament victory in the past four events, wins that came not long after thumb surgery.
O'Donnell is the first UNC women's golfer to be named All-ACC four times. She's hoping to make history with her teammates at the Vanderbilt Legends Club. UNC is making its 14th NCAA championship appearance and trying for its first top-five finish.
The Tar Heels have reason to believe they can finish higher, given that during the Mason Rudolph Fall Preview, on the same course, UNC gave away four shots on the final hole and was playing the final round without O'Donnell, whose pain-ridden left thumb finally told her enough was enough. She withdrew from the event and had surgery over the semester break at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla., near her house in Ponte Vedra Beach.
Since returning to competition in March, her stroke average is 72.9, or 72.2 if discarding the 82, her one forgettable round, at the Bryan Intercollegiate in Greensboro in April. A stroke average near par puts O'Donnell among the country's best, but her overall stroke average seems modest (73.5, 36th nationally), because it includes fall play, when the thumb was still a problem.
These days, it seems, all O'Donnell has to worry about are which earrings to wear. It's either superstition or OCD, she's not sure which, but as Coach Jan Mann says, "whatever makes `em play well."
O'Donnell chose earrings with Carolina blue "gems" for the regional in Erie, Colo., nearly two weeks ago, and she still had them on for an interview last week. They're just costume jewelry, but after a first-round 70 in the regional, they were like the Hope Diamond to O'Donnell.
"I do like to do things the same way, if it went well the previous day," O'Donnell said. "I'll eat the same thing in the morning, in the same order. Or wear the same earrings. I'm a big earring person. I think I wore these same earrings every day, because after the first day I played really well. If I hadn't played well, I might have switched them."
Less than three months after surgery, she shot 72-71-71 to win the LSU Golf Classic in March, her first collegiate tournament victory since the 2008 Tar Heel Invitational.
In the regional, she held the lead heading into the final round but started with a pair of bogeys. Not long after, she gathered herself, making six birdies in a 10-hole stretch to win the tournament by one shot.
O'Donnell shots rounds of 70, 69 and 70. The second round was memorable for its steadiness in less-than-ideal conditions: 38 degrees and raining, with occasional flurries. Her Floridian blood was severely tested. "I had all the clothes I could have on without not being able to swing," she said. "I had a lot of clothes on."
The holes she bogeyed in a first-round 70 that Thursday? She parred each in the second round. On Saturday, with the rain gear put away and a title in sight, O'Donnell continued to show that she can learn from, or forget, past mistakes. Those bogey holes from the first round were all birdies in the final round.
Then she got what she considered the graduation present of a lifetime - a trip back to Chapel Hill in time for graduation. Her father arranged for a chartered plane from Colorado so that O'Donnell, fellow senior Allie White and both their sets of parents could get back in time for the ceremony Sunday morning at Kenan Stadium.
In Ponte Vedra Beach, O'Donnell attended Nease High School, the alma mater of NFL quarterback Tim Tebow. She even had a weight-training class with Tebow when she was a freshman and he was a senior, so she got an up-close look at his legendary enthusiasm.
"He's focused beyond belief," she said. "When he was lifting in there, he was in his own world. Not out of his way like, rude to people, but, `I'm here to do a job. ...'
"I look up to him, definitely. His work ethic, to see it firsthand, is unbelievable."
O'Donnell also says she enjoys learning the mental game from UNC basketball coach Roy Williams, who gave the team a surprise pep talk before the ACC championships and is often around the Chapman Center.
"He is always checking up on us," O'Donnell said. "I think he's a very cool person, and I really like to listen to him talk. I think he can shed some wisdom ... on just the mental aspect of playing a sport. I think he's very intelligent when it comes to that kind of stuff."
O'Donnell credits Mann, in her third season at UNC, with helping the team learn to focus on the next shot, instead of dwelling on the previous one. However, Mann thinks O'Donnell already had that skill, one that will help her in her plans to turn pro after NCAAs and a summer of amateur golf.
It was a skill she saw on display in the regional. O'Donnell said she misclubbed on the par-3 ninth hole, hitting a shot right at the flag but far over the green. She double-bogeyed and made the turn with some work to do. She followed with birdies on 10, 12, 13 and 15.
"That is Catherine. That's one of her strengths," Mann said. "She is able to play each shot, and play it to the best of her ability, and not be affected by what has happened in the past. That is a thing we all strive for and what we try to teach our players, but Catherine can actually do it. I think it's a skill that will carry over for her.
"Catherine has what it takes mentally to succeed. You don't see it very often in players or athletes. ... Doesn't matter if she's down, what the score is, she's gonna fight to the very end. I feel very confident that she'll be successful."
![Images from the first round of the 2026 Gators Invitational on Friday, March 6, 2026 at Mark Bostick Golf Course at the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL. [Photo by Matt Pendleton Photography for North Carolina Tar Heels Athletics]](https://images.sidearmdev.com/resize?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdxbhsrqyrr690.cloudfront.net%2Fsidearm.nextgen.sites%2Func.sidearmsports.com%2Fimages%2F2026%2F3%2F7%2F260306-NCAAWGOLF-UNC-GatorsInvitational-0828-MattPendleton_copy.jpg&height=340&type=webp)
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